GRIEVE, Lena Helen (nee ANDRYC) - The flame of the once resilient candle flickered; The wax all but gone.
What was, for so long, such a strong, seemingly eternal flame Became but a shadow of its past, A fragment, A fragile imitation.
Lena Helen Andryc was born, she lived, and then she died. But in that time, she lived much longer than she had ever imagined, and she truly did live.
Born in Toronto in 1934 to poor but resilient Ukrainian immigrants, she endured the hardships so common in those days, including the loss of a brother, and both of her parents at a young age.
She had a very long stay in the hospital, but she had also had the support of many friends and families from the community, and she kept on enduring until she met Charles David Grieve who she married on April 7, 1962 and spent the rest of those years happily and in good health.
Lena remained the cornerstone of the family from then on, until late in 2020 when she began showing signs of exhaustion, and within a few months, she became just a mere reflection of who she was and what she gave to the world she knew.
Both sadly and mercifully, in the early hours of Saturday, May 8, 2021, Lena gave up the ghost and succumbed to the illness that plagued her for the last months of her wonderful life.
She was predeceased by her brother John (age 5), mother Anna (1945), father Wasyl (1958), Cuddles (2006), son Sean (2010), and brother Mike (2016), leaving behind her devastated cat Button, husband David, son Brian – her mamynyy malenkyy. On the morning of her passing, my dad told her "You were the best thing that ever happened to me" and I echo that wholeheartedly.
But despite our loss, it is with such gratitude to have had you as a wife and mother for so long, and even more reassuring that you are finally with your maternal family again.
And one day we will join you. And this time it will be forever. Do not rage against the dying of the light Follow the new and everlasting one – It has sought and found you.
And for such a deserving soul, It is the perfect ending to a new and eternal beginning.
idy v myri moya lyubov
In lieu of flowers, donations to the Heart & Stroke Foundation would be greatly appreciated, whilst a private service will be held for the immediate family.
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